“Strategies and technologies to achieve a European Fossil-energy-free agriculture.”

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AgroFossilFree

The project AgroFossilFree, presented by a consortium of which CEMA is a participating partner, was recently selected for funding by the European Commission under the Defossilising agriculture H2020 Call for proposals LC-FNR-06-2020.

The Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH) will lead the AgroFossilFree project, which will see the work of 16 partners from academia, professional associations, research, industry and the public sector. The project’s duration is 3 years, with a budget of EUR 1.999.937,50 and an expected start date in September 2020.

The aim of the project is to create  a framework under which critical stakeholders will cooperate to evaluate and promote currently available fossil-energy-free strategies and technologies (FEFTS) in EU agriculture to diminish in the short term and eliminate in the long run fossil fuels use in any farming process from cradle to farm gate, while maintaining yield and quality of the end-product. Such a framework will contribute to closing the gap between the available FEFTS, either commercial or from applicable research results, with the everyday EU agricultural practices by promoting an effective exchange of novel ideas and information among research, industry, extension and the farming community so that existing research and commercial solutions can be widely communicated, while capturing grassroots level needs and innovative ideas from the farming and related industry communities. Financing opportunities for de-fossilizing EU agriculture will be investigated and highlighted.

Project objectives:

Objective 1: Consider and evaluate the current status in EU agriculture regarding energy use and assess existing needs and interests for the future farm energy profile

Objective 2: Identify and register currently available and directly applicable FEFTS, spanning from applied research results to market solutions and investigate available financing tools for de-fossilizing activities

Objective 3: Create an online platform containing all available FEFTS to be assessed and provide a Decision Support Toolkit to provide proposed interventions based on user inputs as well as links for those interventions financing

Objective 4: Collaborate with all relative stakeholders in thematic groups using interactive physical and online methodologies to produce community-based ideas for FEFTS integration in agricultural systems in a regional and EU-basis

Objective 5:  Create policy recommendations and communicate them to increase visibility and promote the proposed strategies and technologies in real agricultural activities in the near future.

Implementation:

  • Work package 1: Current energy use status in EU agriculture and identification of factors affecting innovation adoption and diffusion of FEFTS.
  • Work package 2: Registry of available FEFTS and financing tools in EU agriculture.
  • Work package 3: Interactive multi-actor innovation networking, consultation and development of policy guidelines on FEFTS adoption in EU agriculture.
  • Work package 4: AgEnergy Online Platform.
  • Work package 5: Dissemination and Communication.
  • Work package 6: Project Management.

CEMA will support activities in WP1, WP2, WP4, but will be mainly involved in WP3 and WP5. 

In WP1, CEMA will support identification and promotion of the examples of novel products and best practices among manufacturers in the field of near to Fossil Energy Free Technologies and Strategies, (FEFTS). This action will be closely interlinked with WP2, where CEMA will participate to the preparation of the methodology framework related to systematic review of the papers, projects and industrial solution which will feed the FEFTS Platform developed in WP4. Additionally, CEMA will be focused mainly on creation on FEFTS industrial products and integrated solution registry using its own industry network for data collection.

CEMA will actively participate and will motivate and encourage industry experts to be actively involved in the project activities within WP3, particularly by participating in regional and transnational workshops providing input on maturity, availability and affordability of FEFTS. Based on their own company experiences, industry experts involved in the AgroFossilFree will be also able to provide a feedback to the AgroFossilFree activities. CEMA will additionally contribute to the creation of policy recommendations for FEFTS use expansion in EU agriculture, bringing the view of agricultural machinery industry sector.

In WP4, CEMA will support other partners in development of Online platform, enabling the interaction between agricultural sector stakeholders and providing the ground for the exploitation and wider application of FEFTS.

CEMA will participate in Dissemination and Communications (WP5) by:

  • Supporting the WP leader in the communications activities; including support in the organization of the project final conference;
  • Participating in events and meetings;
  • Contributing to the dissemination of the project;
  • And facilitating a link with existing relevant EU initiatives dedicated to implementation of approaches and strategies towards a fossil-energy-free

 

https://www.agrofossilfree.eu/